Vitaly Petrov

Vitaly Petrov
Vitaly Petrov 2010 Malaysia.jpg
Petrov at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Date of birth 8 September 1984 (1984-09-08) (age 26)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality  Russian
2010 team Renault
2010 car # 12
Races 12
Championships 0
Wins 0
Podiums 0
Career points 17
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 1
First race 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last race 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Petrov (Russian: Виталий Александрович Петров, born September 8, 1984 in Vyborg) is a Russian Formula One driver for the Renault F1 team. He is known as "Vyborg Rocket" in Russia.[1] By competing in the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, he is the first Russian driver to take part in the Formula One World Championship. He currently resides in Valencia, Spain.

Contents

Career

Early career

Unlike most top drivers, Petrov did not begin his career in karting, as there was very little motorsport where he lived.[2] He began competing in the Russian Lada Cup in 2001. He remained in the series for 2002 and dominated the championship, winning all rounds and amassing the maximum points possible of 500.[3]

Formula Renault

In 2003, Petrov began racing in Formula Renault, racing in the Italian Championship for Euronova Racing, finishing 19th overall. He also competed in some rounds of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0.[3] He also finished fourth in the British Formula Renault Winter Series at the end of the year, taking one win.[3] He also made his debut in Euro Formula 3000 at Cagliari.[3]

Return to Russia

In 2004, Petrov turned his attention to the inaugural season of the Russian Lada Revolution championship. He started every race from pole position, but finished as runner-up. He also made selected appearances in Formula Renault and Euro F3000.

Petrov remained in Russia for 2005, winning the Lada Revolution Championship with ten wins and the Russian Formula 1600 series with five wins.[3]

Euroseries 3000

In 2006, Petrov raced in Euroseries 3000 with Euronova Racing. He finished third in the standings, scoring nine podiums in eighteen races including four wins at Hungaroring, Mugello Circuit, Silverstone Circuit and Circuit de Catalunya.[4] Also he participated in the Brno round of the 2006 F3000 International Masters season, where he took a pole position.

GP2 Series

Petrov took his first win of the 2009 GP2 Series season at the Turkish round.

During the 2006 season Petrov made his debut in the GP2 Series for David Price Racing. He replaced French driver Olivier Pla, who lost his sponsorship from Direxiv in the team from the German round onwards.[5]

In 2007 he moved to Campos Grand Prix, where he joined Giorgio Pantano.[6] He scored five point-scoring positions from 21 races and took his first victory at Valencia[7] on his way to finishing 13th in the standings.[3]

Petrov finished in third position with one win at Sepang International Circuit[8] in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season for Campos, behind champion Romain Grosjean and Sébastien Buemi.

In main series Petrov remained with the Campos team. He finished seventh in final standings, taking a win at the Valencia Street Circuit.[9]

He finished fifth, with a win in the Sepang sprint race,[10] in the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season for Campos.

He stayed with the team for 2009, now rebranded as Barwa Addax, and finished as runner-up to the dominant Nico Hülkenberg in the championship, winning twice at Istanbul Park[11] and Valencia Street Circuit.[12]

Formula One

Petrov driving for Renault at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Petrov was linked to joining Sauber, Renault F1 and Campos for the 2010 season. He was announced as a Renault driver on 31 January and thus he has become the first Russian driver in the Formula One World Championship (Igor Troubetzkoy raced a Ferrari Formula One car in 1948). He has been signed for a one-year deal, with an option for a further two. He was very close to signing for Campos but he felt Renault was the best option for him. He also mentioned that he had no major sponsors from Russia backing him just his dad and some of his friends.[2] Petrov states that his goal is to start scoring points by mid-season. His teammate for his debut season will be Robert Kubica. After qualifying seventeenth, Petrov's first race ended prematurely when the team found his right-front suspension strut to be damaged, which the Russian suspected to have been caused by hitting a kerb too hard. He had been chasing Rubens Barrichello for tenth place and a World Championship point at the time of the incident.

He finished his first race at the Chinese Grand Prix, and in doing so, scored his first F1 points, as he finished in seventh position. This race was also noted for his overtakes of Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber under heavy rain.[13]

After qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix he started ninth - the best of his career so far. But after a collision with Fernando Alonso in the closing laps, he suffered a puncture and was forced to make a pitstop. On returning to the track he set the fastest lap of the race, finishing fifteenth.

At the 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix, Petrov qualified seventh, ahead of much respected team mate Robert Kubica. He finished in 5th place, his highest finish to date.

Vitaly Petrov's height is 1.85 meters, being the tallest race driver in the current starting field.

Racing career

Career summary

Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position
2001 Lada Cup Russia  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? 1st
2002 Lada Cup Russia SK OOO Favorit 5 5 5 5 5 500 1st
VW Polo Cup  ? 1 1  ?  ? 1  ?  ?
Formula RUS 10 Duimov 2 2  ?  ? 2  ?  ?
2003 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series Eurotek Motorsport  ? 1 0 0 1 44 4th
Formula Renault 2000 UK 2 0 0 0 0 23 28th
Formula Renault 2000 Italia Euronova Junior Team 12 0 0 0 0 12 19th
Formula Renault 2000 Masters Euronova Racing 6 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Euro Formula 3000 1 0 0 0 0 0 22nd
2004 Formula Renault 2000 Italia Euronova Junior Team 4 0 0 0 0 2 28th
Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Euro Formula 3000 Euronova Racing 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
Lada Revolution Russia Elex Polyus 4 1 4  ? 4 43 2nd
2005 Formula 1600 Russia Art-Line ProTeam 6 5 1  ? 9 85 1st
Lada Revolution Russia Maxmotor-Ulianovsk 14 10 5 6 9  ? 1st
2006 Euroseries 3000 Euronova 17 4 0 2 9 72 3rd
GP2 Series DPR 8 0 0 0 0 0 28th
F3000 International Masters Charouz Racing System 2 0 1 0 0 0 29th
2007 GP2 Series Campos Grand Prix 21 1 0 0 1 21 13th
2008 GP2 Series Barwa International Campos Team 20 1 0 1 3 39 7th
GP2 Asia Series 10 1 1 0 4 33 3rd
2008–09 GP2 Asia Series Barwa International Campos Team 11 1 0 0 3 28 5th
2009 GP2 Series Barwa Addax Team 20 2 2 1 7 75 2nd
2010 Formula One Renault F1 Team 12 0 0 1 0 17* 12th*

* Season in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 DC Points
2006 DPR Direxiv VAL
FEA
VAL
SPR
SMR
FEA
SMR
SPR
EUR
FEA
EUR
SPR
ESP
FEA
ESP
SPR
MON
FEA
GBR
FEA
GBR
SPR
FRA
FEA
FRA
SPR
GER
FEA
15
GER
SPR
15
HUN
FEA
15
HUN
SPR
10
TUR
FEA

16
TUR
SPR

18
ITA
FEA

Ret
ITA
SPR

12
28th 0
2007 Campos Grand Prix BHR
FEA

14
BHR
SPR

11
ESP
FEA

10
ESP
SPR

16
MON
FEA
6
FRA
FEA
5
FRA
SPR
5
GBR
FEA

9
GBR
SPR

9
GER
FEA

11
GER
SPR

17
HUN
FEA
Ret
HUN
SPR
9
TUR
FEA

17
TUR
SPR

5
ITA
FEA

12
ITA
SPR

12
BEL
FEA

9
BEL
SPR

11
VAL
FEA
1
VAL
SPR
8
13th 21
2008 Campos Grand Prix ESP
FEA

6
ESP
SPR

Ret
TUR
FEA

5
TUR
SPR

2
MON
FEA
Ret
MON
SPR
15
FRA
FEA
4
FRA
SPR
18
GBR
FEA

10
GBR
SPR

5
GER
FEA
Ret
GER
SPR
12
HUN
FEA
Ret
HUN
SPR
9
EUR
FEA
1
EUR
SPR
15
BEL
FEA

4
BEL
SPR

3
ITA
FEA

Ret
ITA
SPR

Ret
7th 39
2009 Barwa Addax ESP
FEA

2
ESP
SPR

9
MON
FEA
2
MON
SPR

6
TUR
FEA

1
TUR
SPR

3
GBR
FEA

15
GBR
SPR

10
GER
FEA

4
GER
SPR

4
HUN
FEA
Ret
HUN
SPR
12
VAL
FEA
1
VAL
SPR
3
BEL
FEA

Ret
BEL
SPR

6
ITA
FEA

2
ITA
SPR

5
POR
FEA

4
POR
SPR
Ret
2nd 75

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 DC Points
2008 Campos Grand Prix DUB1
FEA
Ret
DUB1
SPR
9
IDN
FEA

5
IDN
SPR
3
MYS
FEA
1
MYS
SPR
3
BHR
FEA

10
BHR
SPR

3
DUB2
FEA
4
DUB2
SPR
Ret
3rd 33
2008–09 Campos Grand Prix CHN
FEA
5
CHN
SPR
Ret
DUB
FEA
5
DUB
SPR
C
BHR1
FEA

10
BHR1
SPR

12
QAT
FEA
3
QAT
SPR
2
MYS
FEA
6
MYS
SPR
1
BHR2
FEA

19
BHR2
SPR

11
5th 28

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 WDC Points
2010 Renault F1 Team Renault R30 Renault RS-27 2.4 V8 BHR
Ret
AUS
Ret
MAL
Ret
CHN
7
ESP
11
MON
13
TUR
15
CAN
17
EUR
14
GBR
13
GER
10
HUN
5
BEL
ITA
SIN
JPN
KOR
BRA
ABU
12th* 17*

* Season in progress.

References

  1. "Vitaly Petrov Adria race report". motorsport.com. 2006-04-11. http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=214689&FS=EU3000. Retrieved 2007-08-12. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Noble, Jonathan (2010-01-31). "Q & A with Vitaly Petrov". autosport.com (Haymarket Publishing). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81165. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/467/career/ Career statistics at Driver Database
  4. "2006 Euroseries 3000". speedsport-magazine.com. Speedsport Magazine. http://www.speedsport-magazine.com/motorsport/formula-level2/euroseries-3000/2006/calendar.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  5. "Petrov in as DPR says goodbye to Pla, Direxiv". crash.net. 2006-07-24. http://www.crash.net/gp2/news/67396/1/petrov_in_as_dpr_says_goodbye_to_pla_direxiv.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  6. "Campos sign Pantano, Petrov for '07". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). 2007-01-31. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/56534. Retrieved 2007-01-31. 
  7. "Unexpected win for Petrov.". crash.net. 2007-09-29. http://www.crash.net/gp2/news/68235/1/unexpected_win_for_petrov.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  8. "Petrov out of the chaos". crash.net. 2008-03-22. http://www.crash.net/gp2/news/68404/1/petrov_out_of_the_chaos.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  9. "Petrov picks up Pantano's pieces in Valencia". crash.net. 2008-08-23. http://www.crash.net/gp2/news/68601/1/petrov_picks_up_pantanos_pieces_in_valencia.html. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  10. "Petrov takes Malaysia sprint race". gp2.gpupdate.net (GPUpdate). 2009-04-05. http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/gp2-news/209760/petrov-takes-malaysia-sprint-race/. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  11. "Petrov claims Saturday thriller". gp2.gpupdate.net (GPUpdate). 2009-06-06. http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/gp2-news/213784/petrov-claims-saturday-thriller/. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  12. "Petrov wins Valencia feature race". gp2.gpupdate.net (GPUpdate). 2009-08-22. http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/gp2-news/218016/petrov-wins-valencia-feature-race/. Retrieved 2010-01-31. 
  13. "Chinese Grand Prix - selected team & driver quotes". formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 2010-04-18. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/4/10681.html. Retrieved 2010-04-19. "I'm happy to finish my first race in Formula 1 and to score my first points." 

External links